PORTLAND, OR – Festivities ramp up for the 5th Annual National Soup Swap Day.

PORTLAND, OR – Festivities ramp up for the 5th Annual National Soup Swap Day.

This Saturday is National Soup Swap Day and plans for several celebrations are already in the works. This relatively new national holiday has gone seemingly unnoticed for the past four years. However, now in its fifth year, it has begun to pick up more momentum throughout the country. The first soup swap took place in tree hugging Seattle, WA where the residents needed to find a way to beat the depressing rain and gloom.

In order to battle with the meteorological misery, Knox Gardner came up with the idea to eat soup and get drunk with friends and family. On that historic day, everyone brought a soup and immediately they realized that there was way too much soup for all to consume. In the end, they decided to swap the soups that they brought and the glorious day where everyone gathers about to drink and share soups was born.

Jim Richards of Portland, Oregon, which according to Gardener is “one of the centers of the Soup Swap craze”, intends to continue his own soup swap event that he recently started.

“Last year was a great success, it just got a little bit out of control,” said Richards. He explained that during the festivities people were so into the exchange that a food fight broke out. He also said under his breath, “They were pretty damn drunk too!” Normally a food fight would sound like good fun but when it involves scalding hot soup and a bunch of drunks, it can quickly become tragic. “75% of last years attendees were sent to the ER for third degree burns,” explained Richards, “the other 25% were unharmed because they were only hit with Gazpacho.”

This year Richards has changed his format. Instead of bringing piping hot soups, guests will bring six frozen quarts of their favorite creations to swap with one another. He is also imposing a three drink limit to insure that things do not get out of hand again. “The last thing that we need is for someone to get drunk and heave a frozen quart of soup at someone’s head,” said Richards.